


Beauty and the Maverick

by fembotfury16



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: F/M, Getting Together, M/M, Trans Male Character, also Volleyball's name is Vicky, and she and Matthews are brother and sister, casual locker room nudity, it's Matthews, it's just briefly mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-23
Updated: 2017-02-23
Packaged: 2018-09-26 13:01:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9898181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fembotfury16/pseuds/fembotfury16
Summary: Bitters likes Jensen, and everyone but the two of them can see it. Some people are supportive, some people are not. But what will Bitters do with these feelings? Acknowledge them? Confess? Ask her out? Bury his emotions deep down beneath a layer of false apathy? Who knows.





	

“Are you going to ask her out or not?”  
Bitters blinked, tearing his eyes from the girl with the red trim to the boy with the yellow trim. “Sorry, what?”  
Matthews huffed, putting his hands on his hips. “Katie! You’ve only been staring at her all day everyday! Everyone knows that you like her. Well, except maybe her. She’s kind of oblivious like that.”  
The orange-trimmed soldier scoffed. “I don’t have a crush on Jensen. Could you imagine making out with her? I’d probably get stuck to her braces.”  
“Like you would mind getting stuck to her?”  
Bitters turned to glare at his squad-mate, opening his mouth to retort before being interrupted.  
“Did you just say that you have a thing for Katie?!”  
He threw his head back with an annoyed groan, while Matthews let out a cheerful, “Hi, Vicky!”  
The soldier in pink trim walked up and put her hands on her hips, mirroring her little brother from moments before. She squinted her eyes and looked down at Bitters. “Don’t you dare go near that girl!”  
“I wasn’t going to!” Bitters threw his arms up into the air. “Fuck, why does everyone think I have a thing for Jensen!” He froze, glancing over to where the soldier of the hour stood. Thankfully, she was too enthralled in the mongoose she was helping Simmons fix to notice anything going on around her.  
“Because it’s really obvious?” Matthews offered.  
Antoine scoffed. “How is it ‘obvious’ you dumbass?”  
“She’s the only one that you let call you ‘Annie’?”  
“Well she's never a dick about it,” he responded. “Like some people I know.”  
“Look Bitters,” Palomo began, suddenly plopping down next to him. “If you’re gonna date Katie, you better treat her like a fucking goddess.”  
“Oh my God,” Bitters groaned. “I’m not gonna date Katie.”  
“You fucking better not,” Vicky growled, crossing her arms.  
“Oh, come on guys, leave him alone!” Matthews cried, trying to defend his squad-mate.  
“Daniel, we all know that a douchebag like him would take advantage of Katie and treat her like shit. And I’m not just gonna sit back and let anyone hurt her. She’s practically family!”  
“Wha-? Vicky, I’m your family!” Matthews whined.  
“Then as her brother by the transitive property, you shouldn’t condone this asshole trying to use Katie to get his dick wet!”  
“But I’m not-“ Bitters attempted to interject.  
“Seriously, Bitters, Jensen is too fucking good for you,” Palomo added venomously.  
“You know what?!” Bitters snapped, standing up from the crate he had been leaning on. “You can all just go fuck yourselves!” Antoine stormed off, not noticing Jensen’s concerned look in his direction.  
***  
Bitters knew that he looked like the textbook example of a moody teenager, but he didn’t really care. Sitting on the floor of a shower stall with the water running down his back, he was sure that he looked pitiful.  
Okay, yes. He had a crush on Katie Jensen. How could he not? She was an absolute ray of fucking sunshine. She was nice to everyone but took absolutely no shit. She had complete determination in everything she did. Then there’s the matter of her cute little snort-giggle that she did when she thought something was really funny, her curly hair that was always pulled into low pigtails, and her thick glasses, her freckles that were just barely visible on her already dark skin, and those braces that should be a huge turnoff but just made her cuter….  
Antoine quickly turned the water to cold.  
A few minutes later, Bitters turned off the water and dried himself off with a shitty, seldom-washed towel (being low on food, sure, but low on washing machines?) before walking into the locker room to grab his civvies.  
“Oh, hey Antoine!”  
Bitters let out a totally manly shriek as he attempted to cover up his unmentionables, spinning around to find a post-shower Matthews grinning at him. Bitters groaned, though slightly relieved that it was him and not...hmmm, Palomo? Could that have been worse? He wasn’t sure what would’ve been worse, but he was relieved nonetheless.  
“You almost gave me a fucking heart attack you prick!” Bitters shouted, dropping into a more relaxed state.  
Matthews shrugged. “Sorry! I’ll try to be more careful next time!” Undeterred by the harsh words, Matthews walked to his locker, humming some old show tune, and carefully putting his binder back on. He spun around to look back at his squad-mate. “So, do you think that you’ll need help asking Jensen out? I’ll gladly be your wingman.  
“I’m not asking her out,” Bitters grumbled, pulling his boxers out of his locker and putting them on.  
“What?!”  
“And even if I was, I would not pick you as a wingman.”  
“Is this about what Charlie said?” Matthews crossed his arms, beginning to look upset. “Because what he and my sister said was totally uncalled for.”  
Bitters scoffed. “Well, they were right. Katie deserves better than me, alright? So could you just drop this?”  
“No they are not right!” Matthews shrieked, pausing his redressing mid-pant-pulling-up. “Vicky is her closest female friend. Girl friends, they look out for each other in a way that guys just don’t. They’re on the constant look out for anyone that could plausibly hurt their friends. Which, when it comes to boys, could be anyone. And Charlie used to have a crush on her, so he still puts her on a sort of pedestal.”  
Bitters raised an eyebrow. “So, what, he still kinda likes her? Does that make things weird between you two?”  
“Oh gosh, no!” Matthews laughed, finally pulling his pants up. “Old crushes just hold a special place in people’s hearts, especially when they were recent.” Matthews smiled, looking love-struck. “But I’m the number one in his heart.” He sighed dreamily and Bitters gagged.  
“But that doesn’t mean that they weren’t right,” Bitters sighed. “I’m an asshole. She deserves someone who will treat her right. Someone who isn’t emotionally constipated.” He finished pulling on his shirt before closing his locker and leaning against it. “It’s just a stupid crush. I’ll get over it.”  
“But Bitters!”  
“Look Daniel,” Antoine growled. “Katie doesn’t have a crush on me. She doesn’t even like me. It would be shitty of me to come onto her when she doesn’t want me to.”  
“Are you blind?”  
Bitters jumped a bit more than he’d like to admit (but still less than Matthews) while he turned around to see Smith in his workout civvies, probably about to take a shower. Bitters groaned. “Why the fuck are people popping out of nowhere to comment on my non-existent crush on Katie!?”  
“She has a huge crush on you,” Smith said, ignoring Bitters’ comment. “It’s obvious. Have you really not realized?”  
Bitters’ eyes bugged out a bit, before he quickly tried (and failed) to slip back into his ‘cool guy’ stance. “H-how can you tell?”  
“She’s constantly standing next to you?” Smith offered, peeling off his shirt and placing it in his locker. “She gets really excited when she talks to you? She blushes when she talks to you? She seems much less upbeat when you aren’t around?”  
“She told me she has a crush on you?”  
“Wha-Matthews!” Bitters screeched. “Why didn’t you tell me?”  
“Hey, that was told to me in confidence!” Matthews spat defensively. “I haven’t told her that you like her, so it’s only fair!”  
“Why not?! That would have made things so much easier!”  
“It wasn’t my place to tell!”  
“Then why are you telling me now?!”  
Matthews opened his mouth to respond but quickly shut it, taking a few seconds to contemplate. “Uh…”  
“Antoine,” Smith gripped Bitters’ shoulders and looked into his eyes, which make Bitters really uncomfortable because Smith had fully stripped down by this time whilst Bitters was having a crisis about his love life. “I’m not going to tell you that you’re always a super great guy and that you will have no problems being the man Katie deserves. You have some issues sorting out your emotions and lashing out at people. If you’re going to make Katie happy, you’re going to have to work on yourself as a person. And hey, I’m sure that Katie will, too. But if you both want to be together, then it’s worth a shot. This is her decision, too, and whether or not people think you're good enough for her doesn't matter if she decides that she wants to be with you.”  
Bitters paused, mulling over the information before letting out a deep sigh. “John, I get what you’re saying and I’m gonna take it to heart or whatever, but I really feel like it would have made a bigger impact on me if you weren’t buckass nude right now.”  
“…Okay, I’m done,” John patted Antoine’s shoulders before letting go of him and walking to the showers. “Have fun with your hopeless crush and your emotional constipation.”  
“I said I would take the shit you told me to heart!” Bitters called after him.  
“So then you’re gonna tell her?” Matthews asked in the middle of putting his helmet on.  
“How…are you already in full armor?” Bitters looked his squadmate up and down in confusion.  
“Never mind that, you’re going to confess to Katie?!”  
Antoine sighed. “…I guess”  
Daniel’s screech had Antoine covering his ears.  
***  
“Okay”  
“Okay”  
“I’m gonna do this.”  
“You got this!”  
“I’m gonna tell Katie that I like her.”  
“You totally got this!”  
“And I’m gonna ask her on a date.”  
“Woohoo! Heck yeah!”  
“Matthews I really don’t need you to be here”  
“But who will be your hype man?”  
“Oh my God.”  
Bitters and Matthews were peaking their heads around the corner of the workshop, watching as Lopez pulls Jensen out of a warthog before she could drive it. Antoine tried to find some nice looking civvies, but failed and was just wearing his casual civvies. He had picked some weirdly pretty mushrooms though, so points for that.  
“Matthews, should I do this?”  
“Of course you should!”  
“I don’t think I can do this,” Bitters turned around and tried to make a run for it before Matthews grabbed him, turned him back around, and pushed him into the workshop. And Bitters certainly did not yelp when he tripped over a toolbox and fell on his face.  
“Antoine?” He looked up and saw Katie Jensen above him. “Are you okay?”  
Bitters scrambled to his feet, grabbing the mushrooms. “Yeah I’m fine Katie, I’m totally okay. Nothing wrong with me right now. I’m doing great.”  
“O…kay?” Jensen raised an eyebrow before glancing down at the mushrooms. “Oh my gosh! Those are so cool looking!”  
“Really? Well, they’re for you.”  
Katie gasped and yanked them from the other lieutenant’s hands. “Thank you so much Antoine! Oh, I’m gonna show these to Doctor Grey so she can identify them!” She started to run off before Bitters grabbed her by the elbow.  
“A-actually, Katie, there’s um, something I wanted to ask you something?”  
Jensen looked at Bitters, concerned. “Well, okay Antoine. What is it? Is something wrong?”  
“No no, nothing’s wrong it’s just um…well…you’re really cool and smart and cute and stuff and I really like you. So would you like, wanna date and be my girlfriend maybe? I mean, if you feel like it.”  
Katie was not moving.  
Katie was not responding.  
“Katie?”  
“ANNIE!”  
With that she tackled him to the ground and kissed him, giggling wildly. Matthews squealed from around the corner. Lopez glanced over at them, grumbled something in Spanish, and walked off. Bitters finally processed what the fuck was going on and started kissing Jensen back.  
The greatest miracle of all, though, was that he didn’t get stuck in her braces.

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally meant for the Big Bang, but unfortunately I missed the deadline. But I still have this written and an artist with beautiful fanart that you can find here: http://polyglottal-toad.tumblr.com/post/157425752257/illustrations-for-a-cute-story-by   
> I hope you all enjoy my first fic on AO3!


End file.
